Apr 29 - Member email and PICTURE!

Hello! Last night we had Elder Feidler and his companion in our home for dinner. I wanted you to know how impressed we were with Elder Feidler. He cleared his own plate and the plate of his companion, he brought our conversation back to the topic we should have been discussing, he was personable and fun! He and his companion role played with us as they taught from the pamphlet "The Restoration." We were touched by the spirit brought into our home and how well he answered our questions and responded to our concerns. Thank you for sharing your son with us!
Bro and Sis Lamb

Grandma & Grandpa - Apr 28

Dear Elder Grandson,

First off I have to apologize to you.  I sent you an Easter card and was so excited to get your new address that I forgot to put your apartment number on it.  It came back in the mail on Friday so I sent it out again on Saturday.  I hope you get it.  When I look your address up on Google Earth it has SW Kimball Drive on it.  Should it be that?  I only put Kimball Drive on your card. If we have the correct address, we are going to send you another package.  Do you want anything special?

How has your week gone? Have you found new investigators? The island looks so beautiful on Google Earth. We are excited that you are going to some wonderful places and have great experiences. We know you work hard and are being blessed.

I decided if I wanted a garage sale before school gets out I better have one on Friday.  I spent the whole week dragging stuff out and marking it. It was a beautiful day and we sold a lot of stuff.  Grandpa had bought some Texaco signs and he sold three of them and kept some and got all of his money back on the three signs.  I was able to get a lot of things out of the garage and make some money too.  We had a great day.

We got bids this past week to paint the house.  They were really high ($3500 and $4600) so we thought we were going to have to paint it ourselves. I called one more person to give us a bid and his was more reasonable at $1000 for labor and we buy the paint.  He is going to start tomorrow.  Grandpa and him are going to bleach and pressure wash tomorrow, then he will paint.  I am so excited to get it painted.  It has needed it the past two years.

We are all doing fine.  Tomorrow is Ali's birthday and she will be sixteen.  Larry bought a car and fixed it up nice for her.  You are all growing up so fast.  What happened to the days when we pulled you around in the wagon like we do Myka? 

We are so proud of you and your mission.  We always enjoy hearing from you. We love you so much.  Keep working hard as there are so many people waiting to hear the gospel.

Love,

Grandpa & Grandma 

Grandma and Grandpa,

My address for sure is

915 SW Kimball Dr #B-3

Oak Harbor, WA 98277

I was wondering why I never got the Easter card. :)

Special stuff for package: we have a Walmart right down the street from where we live! Small batch of jacks links peppered beef jerky is really good stuff.

This past week has been full of service. We have mowed 5 yards in the last 7 days. We also found an old rusty push mower that a few missionaries and I are going to try to restore and get working again. My companion has been sick for a few days. Yesterday he was throwing up so we didn't get to go to all of church. I went to the first hour with a different missionary. We think he got food poisoning. Wish I was there to help y'all paint to save ya some $$. We have another investigator on date for May 24. Her name is Sally and she seems to really be excited to learn more. Glad to hear y'all are going good. Love and miss y'all. 

Elder Graham Feidler

Apr 28

Dad:

Elder Graham!

How's my favorite Elder doing this week?  We are all coming down with a cold here at home. Our throats hurt and we cough. Myka was running a fever for a couple of days this week. We think that was because she was teething. But other than those things we are doing great!!

I'm still busy at work. I have tons of appointments set up for this week and I sold a lot this month.

On Saturday I went down to a MINI event in League City and test drove the newest Mini. It was ok. Not much different. Maybe less sporty and more comfy.

I told them I want one of these stand up guys when they are done with them.

I think he would go real well with my phone booth.

Chelle spent all week taking care of Myka as she was very crabby and clingy from the fever and teething.

Maddie auditioned at the Houston High School for the Performing Arts. Not sure why though. It costs $8000 to go there each year since we live out of district. I told her she can't go even if accepted. I'm sure she did excellent though.

Zack went to art club this last week and is helping on building an art bike at school.

The Pearland ward got a new bishop last week.  It's Bishop Mark Anderson!!  I guess if you are ever a seminary teacher then look out, as Bishop might be next.

That's about it for this week. Please send us some pictures from the baptism you had.

Also please make sure to email Grandma & Grandpa and confirm your address. (The SW on the street thing.)

We love and miss you lots!  Keep up the good work. We are all being blessed for the service you are doing.

Graham:

Dad!

I've seen a couple of the new mini's driving around. They look pretty sweet.

I'm looking for some inspirational talks or testimonies to listen to as we travel in the car. Our car has a card reader so I can put audio files on a card and listen to them. Keep on the lookout for good ones please. :)

This past week has been another great one. We have been spending a lot of time on finding new people to teach still. There has to be a better way to find besides knocking on doors! Thankfully most of the people here are pretty friendly even if they have no interest. Today for P-day we are going bowling  and also restoring an old push mower. It is all rusty and doesn't run. Member dinners in this ward aren't happening as much as my past wards. I also think everything on the island is more expensive!

Love and miss y'all,

Elder Graham Feidler

My address is for sure:

915 SW Kimball Dr #B-3

Oak Harbor, WA 98277

Dad:

Where are pictures of the baptism??

So glad you had a good week! We will be on the lookout for some audio inspiration. Pass that meal sign up calendar around and get fed!

Apr 21

Dad:
Wow!  Those chicken pictures we got from the bishop were grosssssss!  I'm not hungry for chicken now.  So it looks like you are learning how to do all kinds of crazy stuff. Are you ready to raise your own chickens one day?

We have had a fun week here. Sorry we did not send any kind of Easter package. We did not even do Easter baskets here.  We did have a good Southfork Easter Egg hunt. Myka got TWO eggs.

We had a great ward Easter BBQ too.

Chelle won first place in the dessert competition with her peach cobbler! Yum!

Also on Friday we put some almost new all terrain tires on the Jeep that we got for real cheap at NTB.

I call this thing the beast or the Funmobile.   Weather has been beautiful here. 70s and 80s during the day.

This morning we had a great Easter Sunday. We went to our sacrament meeting then to Grandma and Grandpa's for the best BBQ ribs ever.  Also had hot links and hot wings.  I was so full. I hope you got fed well too.

Myka learning to Wiggle Waggle. It looked like a classic car club there.

Corvette is one of Larry's friends.

Did you have any new people out to church today?  How's the new companion working out?  Keep up the scripture study and praying and you guys will be led to many more people ready to listen and learn. Right now should be one of the best times on your mission as you are comfortable with the teaching and familiar with the process and ready to listen and follow the Spirit.

We love you and are sooooo proud. Keep it up!  Thanks for all the pictures and please thank the bishop. It was awesome to get them.
Love, Dad

Graham:

Everyone,

This past week we were able to go help with the Darington mudslide. I spent most of Tuesday inside a food bank handing out food to those in need. It took us a little over two hours to drive there. It felt a lot like I was making a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's. Thursday I went to Mount Vernon for an exchange. That is where I was able to slaughter 60 chickens with the young single adult's bishop in the area. Also I spent all of Thursday with my old companion Elder Jackson. He will be finished with his mission and heading home in two weeks! It's crazy to think that when he trained me he hit his year mark and now I'm at my year mark.

On Saturday we went over to bishop's house for a ward pot luck / Easter egg hunt. We had a good turn out and even managed to get a few investigators and less active families there. At 7pm that night is when Allen and Jocelyn got baptized. They were so excited and could hardly wait though out the week. Then on Sunday we confirmed both of them and got to go over to the Somes' house for dinner. Br. Somes smoked a monster ham and we left his place barely fitting through the door. :) Also last week we spent some more time tracting and searching for new people to teach. We came across Chris who is an agnostic minister. Growing up he became a minister but as he got older he realized none of the churches seemed correct so he just believes in some sort of god now but seemed pretty excited to read the Book of Mormon. 

Speaking of the Book of Mormon; I'm now around 3 Nephi 9, I think. I've been using some of my personal study hour every morning to read it. 

I love and miss ya'll! 

-Elder Graham Feidler

Dad:

Wow sounds like a great week!   You are in 3rd Nephi.  You are moving along fast.  We miss and love you. Great to hear from you!!!

Apr 17 - Bishop Texts!!

Your son did a great job helping us butcher 60 chickens tonight. This is Bishop Batkinson. We love them!

Apr 14

Dad:

Graham,

You have been out for over a year!  Your brother showed up at church today with a BOW TIE on!

I guess that makes him like Bill Nye the Science Guy or something. I hear he also got a hat...

All is well here. I've been very busy at work and the big presentation board that Chelle and I made paid off. The Texas City Parks Department is going to recommend to City Council to purchase our playground design for the park at the entrance to the Texas City Dike! I'm excited. It's a big one, but was discounted a lot!

Myka is still running around and screaming if she wants something.  I got to see Maddie perform a solo choir piece at a recital on Thursday night and she did really good!  Your Nana, Charles and your mom were there too.

The Jeep has been doing well this week. When we bought it, it was missing a lug nut, so I went to buy one yesterday and found out the stud was stripped. So I bought a stud too at AutoZone and it was less than $5 and I fixed it in about 15 minutes!  So much easier to get parts and fix than the Classic Mini was.  Plus, it does not drip oil all over my drive way and garage.

Church was good today.  Next Sunday we are going to Grandma & Grandpa's for Easter.  It will be fun to see if Myka will run around and pick up the Easter eggs at Grandma's yearly Easter Egg hunt.

A lot of people are moving out of the ward soon.  We will be losing the (Joe) Wilsons, Garners, Hobbs, Stubbs and Johnsons.  So that will mean new callings for many in the ward to replace these people.  Hopefully summer will bring us some new move-ins.  This Saturday we are having a ward Easter BBQ at Croix Park where Zack did his Eagle Project.

It's been beautiful here. Temps in the low 80's.  I went and got the scooter plates renewed and got it inspected on Friday. I also stopped by the MINI dealer to see the new volcanic orange color on the hard top minis.  It's not too orange.... very yellow compared to mine.

How's Oak Harbor, Washington?  Do you like living on an island?  How are the members treating you?

Time to send us more pictures with you in them!  Take pictures in front of stuff to remember it. Like did you cross this bridge to get on the island?

We love and miss you! Keep working hard and the Lord will bless you.

Love,

Dad

Graham:

Family! What a crazy busy week it has been! So we had the luau on Thursday and then last night we had a member MTC at the church that we put on. We gave everyone call letters to serve a mission in their area and also made nearly identical name tags for the families that came. Both turned out to be a success

Tomorrow we get to spend the day in Darington helping the people that were effected by the mud slide! Also last week we taught Allen and Jocelyn 3 times and had them pray with us to see if they should get baptized sooner. After he finished praying he waited all of two seconds and said yep, lets move the date up! He told us that whenever he feels that good feeling in him, he knows it's the spirit. Now their baptism is scheduled for this Saturday. They are so excited and can hardly wait.

I love this island! So yes, every time we go on or off the island we take that bridge! 

Love and miss ya'll

-Elder Graham Feidler

The picture of me with the lookout behind it was on top of one of the local mountains. We drove our Corolla up to the top and that poor car smelt like it was burning by the time we made it up.

This past week we had a luau! Some other elders and I performed the Haka. We had such a big turn out!

Dad:

You rock!!!  That island is beautiful. I'm glad things are going well.

Awesome and fun! I didn't even recognize you with the face paint on! Thanks for the pics! They are great!!

Take care of the Corolla so you don't have to walk!

Graham:

Haha! I'll try! I don't get to drive it. My companion does.

Dad: 

The last area I served in on my mission was Hartlepool. It was only about 25 miles from Whitby England. I remember going there. My journal says we took an investigator there on Nov. 7, 1990! A long time ago. It looked like this:

Whitbys must just be cool places!

Graham:

We have an investigator that is trying to get me to eat balut! I'm so scared. They are feeding us tonight.

Dad:

Yuck!!!  Don't eat that!

A balut or balot is a developing duck embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines.

Good luck.

April 9 - Hump Day!!

Today is the day. The last half will fly by so enjoy it and learn/share all you can! We are so proud of you!!

Love, 

Dad

Apr 7

Elder Graham Feidler,

Can you believe that Wednesday, April 9th is this week and it is your HUMP DAY!!!  Awesome!!  Your are halfway through.  Don't waste any time because most of it is already gone.  This is a great time to evaluate all you have accomplished and set new goals.  Think of all the people you have helped and go double it in this last year.

I got emailed a picture from your ward mission leader of you and your companion about to do some yard work at his neighbors.  Keep up the good work and serve others and the Lord will continue to bless you. 

Please send us your new address!

Also send some pictures too.   Looks like you had some new clean shoes on in the picture we were sent.  And you looked like Super Man!   We are so happy to see you look healthy.  I hope the car is making it easier on your allergies.  Sounds like you have been super blessed in this new area.  Are you still able to get many dinner appointments with so many members being in military housing?

We have had a great week here. I have been super busy at work, quoting lots of jobs.  Hopefully they will turn into sales.  Myka has been growing like a weed!  She walks everywhere now and can get a little noisy when she wants something.  This week she started screaming to let us know she wants more!  Crazy.  She turned 1 year old on Thursday the 3rd.  Today we held a 1 year birthday party in between conference sessions.  Everyone came over to our house for it!  Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kim, Aiden, Andie, Ali, Nana Chris, Chelle's sisters and their kids, Brad Owens and few others.  We had a house full and ate pulled pork sandwiches and lots of cake.  Chelle made Myka her very own Birthday cake to smash into.  She just made it through the icing and started to get frantic that she was covered in icing!

Time for some pics!

As you can see she had lots of fun.  And mom wanted it to look like a professional photo shoot or something from Pinterest!  We did our best..

Tonight Chelle is helping me prepare for a big playground presentation I have to do tomorrow at the City of Texas City.  I submitted the bid a few weeks ago and this week they called and said it was between us and Game Time playgrounds.  So I probably won't be able to reply immediately to your email tomorrow as I will be in the Meeting around 1 pm to 2 pm.  Pray for me as we sure could use this sell.  It's a $200,000 job. 

The jeep ran good all week!  But it drinks gas!!  about 14-15 mpg.   We cleaned it up yesterday inside and shampooed the carpet and seats. 

Spring is in the air!  There is so much green pollen and stuff in the air you can't keep a car clean right now.

Have a great week and keep the pictures coming!   We will be praying for the family you put on date for May 2.  What is their name?  Keep working hard and you will be blessed.  It is amazing how you just said in the previous email that you had not been to the dentist in a year!  And now your Bishop is a Dentist.  You are doing something right.

We love and miss you very much!

Love, Dad

A few more party pics:

Bye!

Graham:

Dad,

Another week flown by! 

My new address is

915 Kimball Dr. #B-3

Oak Harbor, WA 98207

This past week was another great week. I was able to watch all 10 hours of conference and have 5 pages of notes. Something my companion and I are working on is finding new investigators. He seems to love tracting and street contacting but every time we find someone that will talk to us it turns into a bash. He has a lot of bible verses memorized. I really enjoy working with the members in the ward to get them excited and comfortable with being everyday missionaries. We are giving both ways a try and pushing forward with faith that if we work hard we will see miracles. Jocelyn and Allen Jones are on date for May 2nd. They have two kids that are seven and a few months old. They are so excited to be baptized. He wants to move the date up sooner but isn't done reading the whole Book of Mormon. I'm so excited about reading the Book of Mormon. I've been reading at least a couple of chapters a day and am now near the end of Alma. We get fed about half of our nights. We are able to go to the military bases as long as someone invites us over. We just can't tract or talk to people that we don't know.

Love and miss ya'll,

Elder Graham Feidler

The pictures were of the view from members' house at one of our dinners.

Grandma & Grandpa - Apr 7

Dear Elder Grandson,

Wow, you have been out one year this Thursday.  We are so proud of you.  You are doing a great work for our Father in heaven. We saw the picture of you and your companion that your ward mission leader sent your dad.  You look the same and your smile made us smile. You are a handsome young man.

So how is it going in Oak Harbor?  We sure do need an address.  I looked it up on Google Earth and wish I had your address to see more. Sounds like a good ward.  Are they feeding you? Grandpa says you can go on base if the family is okay with it, but probably not to teach or track.  The beach has a lot of wood on it from what I could see.  The water is really cold I bet. We are so glad you have a car.  You are a long way from the mission home.  Do you have to go to the main land for meetings?  Is there a ferry to go straight across to Everett? You are really getting to see some pretty country.

We just got home from Myka's birthday party.  The had it between sessions.  I recorded all the sessions so we can sit down and watch them when we want.  I have watched both of yesterday's.  The party was really nice. Myka doesn't like to have cake all over her.  She screamed until it was wiped off of her.  Chelle did a great job on the cakes and decorations.  We had pulled pork sandwiches with homemade rolls.  It was so good. Chelle can make rolls just like her mother. Sorry, did I make you hungry? 

We got to see Zack's Jeep.  They have cleaned it up nice and it is banged up a bit but your Dad is going to fix it up.  It is better than your Dad had when he was in high school.

We are finally going to have a week with sunshine.  It is only going to be in the low 70's but we will take it.  It has rained so much and the wind has blown and it has been cool.  We need Spring to come.

Grandpa got the bathroom up and running.  It took two and a half weeks to fix it.  He doesn't want to do that again.

We pray you are doing as good as you look.  Is there anything you need?  Did you like the label maker and the scriptures? We pray for you each day and have faith in you. Stay happy, you will soon be on the down hill and wish you could stay longer.  We love and miss you.

Love and Hugs,

Grandpa & Grandma

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I'm making great use of the new scriptures and the label maker. Thank you so much! :) Saturday and Sunday were so great. I was able to watch all ten hours of conference and loved the stories and testimonies shared. 

My new address is

915 Kimball Dr. #B-3

Oak Harbor, WA 98207

This past weekend I was able to have some smoked pulled pork and chicken. We have a less active member of the church that is starting to come back to church and he insisted on feeding me something I loved back home. It was delicious. I'm so excited to get back out this week and apply what I learned from conference into our conversations with people. The weather here has been really nice. My allergies are getting pretty bad and I don't have any medicine for that. Thank ya'll for everything. Have a great week!

- Elder Graham Feidler

Super Elders - Apr 5

I thought you would enjoy a photo of Elders Doucette and Feidler as they prepare to do some yard work yesterday for one of our neighbors who might be interested in hearing the Gospel.  These Elders are two of the hardest working and most Spiritual Missionaries we have ever had in this part of the Lord's vineyard.  I am the new Ward Mission Leader here in the Penn Cove Ward and am inspired every day by these wonderful Elders who are a credit to the Church and their families.

Warm regards from Whidbey Island, Rod Grant